Cali Kid Corals

This is why I got out of the hobby...

S

sfsuphysics

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I mean having series of unfortunately tank events certainly was a gut punch... but this is what made me just go "f*** it, I'm done with this"

So I'm taking pictures of some zoas, to get ID'd that I ironically picked up last swap at Mission Blue as I forgot what they were called and they grew enough to give back.

Now I know there was a "small" aiptasia on the rock, but after taking the picture ... well everything in red circles I didn't know. And this is just one tiny part of the tank. A bit closer inspection and well it's not isolated to this rock. And I've tried everything from kalk slurrys to aiptasia-X to F-Aiptasia, and I can say without a doubt none of that shit works long term.
 

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I had a similar problem with majanos. Tried kalk slurry and sucking them out during water changes but they always came back. I said f’ it and got the bone cutter out to scrap the rock underneath. Don’t see them anymore and that’s good enough for me. Might be colonies of it on the backside of the rocks but out of sight out of mind. Mike, get those food stealing peppermint shrimps a try.
 
It’s great to see people trying to help out here. I feel your frustration, and to be honest, I’ve been through a lot—I had to break down my tank twice in the past eight months since I started this hobby. You name it, I’ve dealt with it. But because of my love for corals and fish, I stuck with it, and now I’m part of this lovely and helpful community.

Aiptasia is bound to appear one way or another, so the best approach is to keep something in your tank that eats it. That’s better than manually trying to remove it.
 
mac96 said:
It’s great to see people trying to help out here. I feel your frustration, and to be honest, I’ve been through a lot—I had to break down my tank twice in the past eight months since I started this hobby. You name it, I’ve dealt with it. But because of my love for corals and fish, I stuck with it, and now I’m part of this lovely and helpful community.

Aiptasia is bound to appear one way or another, so the best approach is to keep something in your tank that eats it. That’s better than manually trying to remove it.
Click to expand...

I can promise you that you can avoid getting aiptasia from coral frags, but the effort is not easy.

1. QT corals
2. Remove all frag plugs, tile or rocks where possible even if requires removing a little bit of good tissue.
3. Remove any dead skeleton that is possible in addition to plug/tile/rock that frag came on. Especially any skeleton with crevices.
4. If you love zoas, great, but take them in single or double polyps only. I used to grow aiptasia for breeding berghia and those little bastards will grow on top of zoa colonies. They also can be so small, that they’ll easily be missed even under a microscope especially if frag is removed from water to examine as they’ll ball up and shrink and you won’t be able to see it.
5. If you get any softies, see #2.
6. Use of magnifying glass or digital microscope/magnifier can be extremely helpful.
7. If you see a frag with aiptasia, assume that it’s not the only one, especially if there are any crevices in the substrate or skeleton and if it is a larger frag.
 
glee said:
I had a similar problem with majanos. Tried kalk slurry and sucking them out during water changes but they always came back. I said f’ it and got the bone cutter out to scrap the rock underneath. Don’t see them anymore and that’s good enough for me. Might be colonies of it on the backside of the rocks but out of sight out of mind. Mike, get those food stealing peppermint shrimps a try.
Click to expand...
Oh that used to be my go to method, literal rock removal, and that works... until it doesn't or you get tired of disassembling your rock and rebuilding it, that was on the 200 and 300 gallon tanks. This 20 gallon has 3 pieces of rock, and I figured I could stay on top of things fairly easily ... but apparently not. In the past (YEARS ago) I started with rock that was soaked in bleach, then dechlorinator, and then muriatic acid, all to try and start with a "blank slate" ... then acts of kindness screwed me over. This time around, I didn't go through as crazy of a procedure, the rock simply has been bone dry for multiple years... I should have figured that wasn't going to ever stop aptasia... it's like entropy, always increasing.

The upside, is none of the frags I was actually going to bring that are all plugged up, have aiptasia on, so I can still bring those to the swap... tomorrow? (I should really double check that).

MarcosD said:
I have two peppermint shrimp I can PIF if I can catch them? They’re from Salty Bottom Reef Co, supposed to be the right species that eat Aiptasia
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I mean I wouldn't say no. I've done peppermints in the past, and never have had much success.

mac96 said:
It’s great to see people trying to help out here. I feel your frustration, and to be honest, I’ve been through a lot—I had to break down my tank twice in the past eight months since I started this hobby. You name it, I’ve dealt with it. But because of my love for corals and fish, I stuck with it, and now I’m part of this lovely and helpful community.

Aiptasia is bound to appear one way or another, so the best approach is to keep something in your tank that eats it. That’s better than manually trying to remove it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, death, taxes, and aiptasia

BTW, anyone know what kind of zoas those are? I checked my search history way back to last year's swap, and nothing I searched looks anything like them. Otherwise "Buttercup Zoas" will be on the menu.
 
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